


Funeral Drabbles

by MarianneGreenleaf



Series: Canon and Fanon Reflections [11]
Category: The Music Man (1962), The Music Man - All Media Types, The Music Man - Willson
Genre: Child Loss, Edwardian era, Gen, Heavy Angst, Loss of Parent(s), Minor Character Death, Wakes & Funerals, World War II, at least they get to be together in the afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26580550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarianneGreenleaf/pseuds/MarianneGreenleaf
Summary: Three times Marian said goodbye to someone she loved, and one time she couldn’t.
Relationships: Harold Hill/Marian Paroo
Series: Canon and Fanon Reflections [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/61778
Kudos: 2





	Funeral Drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> In the form of 100-word drabbles. Sorry if this is too depressing, but my grandmother recently passed away and writing is the way I cope with loss.

_Eli Paroo  
October 1909_

Papa’s funeral was surprisingly nice, as far as funerals go. Marian would even say it was beautiful, the way his memory was honored. He had been well-liked in River City. She didn’t shed a single tear during the service, which surprised her – she thought she’d be a sobbing wreck. Instead, she felt disconcertingly unmoored. When a small sprig of greenery fell out of one of the sprawling flower arrangements and tumbled pathetically to the floor, as if in wretched sympathy with her loss, she had to bite the inside of her cheek until the ghastly urge to giggle finally subsided.

XXX

_Henry Madison  
September 1910_

Marian was also dry-eyed at Uncle Maddy’s funeral. But the inexorable finality of his loss hit hard during the procession – as she followed the hearse bearing his body to its final resting place, all she could think of was that he was _gone_. And she started heaving with sobs, even though her display would only fuel the malicious rumors. She felt like screaming at everyone they passed for circulating filthy lies. But she was a lady, no matter what _they_ said. So she simply laid her rose on top of his coffin and whispered a tender goodbye through her tears.

XXX

_Margaret Paroo  
September 1942_

Marian thought she was an expert at mourning by now, but when Mama died, she discovered that each loss was exceedingly painful in its own unique way. Her mother had been on this earth for eighty years, and now that she was gone, the world would never be the same. But it helped greatly to know that Mama’s passing was the natural order of things. She’d lived a long and full life, her convalescence was short, and she was ready to go. After thirty-three years of widowhood, she would be reunited with Papa, and the librarian couldn’t begrudge her that.

XXX

_Robert Eli Hill  
May 1948_

It was the losses Marian wasn’t prepared for that ended up hurting the most. She anticipated outliving her parents, Uncle Maddy, and even her husband. She never expected to lose a child. Which was rather ridiculous, as not only did children die of illness and injury, her son was a soldier. He’d been killed during D-Day, and when his body was brought home three years later, Harold had to arrange the funeral. She couldn’t bring herself to get out of bed, as it was completely against the natural order of things. Parents were _never_ supposed to bury their own children.

XXX

_There are moments that the words don’t reach  
There is suffering too terrible to name  
You hold your child as tight as you can  
And push away the unimaginable  
_ _~It’s Quiet Uptown, Hamilton_


End file.
